Minerva's Main Man

Title : Minerva's Main Man

Multi-tasking manager Andrew Hunter not only runs Pitman Training Dumfries, he's a recruitment consultant for Minerva People.  Both centres are ILA (Individual Learning Account) Scotland approved, and Andrew is responsible for updating all the course information in PROMT: "At Minerva, we specialise in admin, management, customer care and childcare NVQs, while at Pitman we train in secretarial skills, from computing and bookkeeping to shorthand."  He continued, "Our learners are really varied.  We have Skillseeker courses and run Modern Apprenticeships, but we also train adult learners, mums returning to work, and career changers, as well as offering staff training for businesses. Basically we get everyone, from school leavers to company directors."

When Andrew started working at Minerva People in October 2005, the company was already using PROMT so he had to learn quickly: "At first I found using PROMT a bit nerve-wracking, not because the software was difficult - but because I was inputting course information for all the world to see, and I didn't want to make any mistakes.  We've now got around 100 courses listed on PROMT for each company.  In the beginning I only ever typed up five courses at a time before publishing, and then I got in touch with my learning information specialist to see if everything was OK."

"Something I figured out was if you're stuck writing a description, search for a similar course on learndirect scotland's website and find out what other organisations have said - it can give you a really good idea of what to put in yourself," Andrew explained.  Now, with more than two years of PROMT experience, he doesn't need to update so often: "The stage we're at now, we've got all our information uploaded so we only have to edit every now and then.  When a course is finished, the information doesn't disappear from PROMT, it's just a matter of changing the dates or prices to make it valid again."

"The flexible start date button made a real difference to us.  Lots of places run courses which have specific start and end dates; but most of our courses run on an ad hoc basis.  The flexible start date button means we can show people the kinds of courses we run all year, without needing definite dates."

Andrew has recently installed PROMT 4, and is already benefiting from the new version:
"The biggest difference is the colour coding on the datagrid, which means you can see at a glance whether a course is showing up on the website or not.  Also, PROMT now shows ILA Scotland funding status, which is a real help to me," he added.  "I also like the reports section - once you know what everyone's looking at, you can change your course provision accordingly, which could save us a lot of energy."

Minerva People will be the venue for some of the PROMT workshops taking place around the country over the next few months, and Andrew will be attending.  "I just want to know how everything works, to be honest, just in case there's any hints or tips I've missed out on.  Any advantage we can get is always appreciated!"